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| Wednesday, 14 January 2004 |
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India: polls won't affect Pakistan talks, will discuss dates soon NEW DELHI, Tuesday (AFP) India said it would soon discuss dates for talks with Pakistan and promised they would be unaffected by plans for early national elections. "We will consult the government of Pakistan in the next few days and weeks and we will fix the date, we will fix the level and we will fix how the talks will proceed," Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha told India's NDTV news channel. Sinha, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the southern city of Hyderabad, said the level at which the dialogue would start would "be mutually decided." His comments came after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told the meeting of senior BJP leaders that India would hold elections "at the earliest" opportunity and he hoped a new government would be in place by April. Sinha said while the BJP was confident of being returned to power, the outcome of the election would not affect the thaw in ties with Pakistan. "Any government in office will negotiate with Pakistan from the point of view of national interest. We will initiate talks in this tenure in office and then we will see how it moves on in future." Asked about the BJP members' urging that the government proceed cautiously in its dialogue with Pakistan, Sinha said the issues with which the countries were dealing were nearly six decades old. "Both countries realise we are dealing with complex and difficult issues and therefore will have to deal with them carefully, slowly and then resolve them." |
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